There has been a rapid proliferation in the number and types of sensors that are being dispersed in buildings, neighborhoods, cities, and geographically. For example, video surveillance cameras have been positioned throughout some cites (e.g., London, United Kingdom) and buildings (e.g., airport terminals, bank buildings, corporate offices, etc.) and communicatively connected to back office monitoring equipment through wired/wireless networks to enable monitoring of the presence and location of people, vehicles, etc. Furthermore, some utility companies have begun monitoring utility meters, such as gas/electrical/water meters, at residential/business locations through wired/wireless networks connected to back office monitoring equipment.
Setup and maintenance of such sensors can become overly burdensome or not reasonably possible as the numbers and types of sensors continues to increase. For example, it has been estimated that the United Kingdom government actively monitors about two million video cameras located in cities, airports, governmental buildings, etc. The continued proliferation of sensors used by governments, businesses, and individuals may overwhelm the ability of existing setup and maintenance processes to be able to support management of such sensors.